Having played it for over an hour, here's first (slightly sleepy) impression.
Game play is a lot of fun. Unlike about 99% of the world, I don't play Halo and haven't really played any FPS since Doom. So consider my view on Sensen as highly uninformed. Using the Wiimote to control a first-person mecha game WORKS. Using the PS2 controller (for Gungriffon etc) is confusing for a n00b gamer like me. Even using the keyboard/mouse combo favored by PC gamers is a little unintuitive, I know it works with practice (evidenced by the speed at which I get pwned on any mulitplayer game). But with the Wiimote for steering and aiming (when you aim offscreen you steer the MS), and the joystick (on the nunchuck) for walking and strafing, I can pull off the standard "circle enemy and fire" move right off the bat. The limited number of buttons on the Wii is a factor. Wii wants to make games a simple intuitive fun activity. Fighting a mecha battle is not a simple intuitive fun activity, there's a problem here. On the PC, it's easy to issue commands to wingmen like "attack this target", "cover me". But on this game, (it seems) it's only down to a number of formation (V, inverted V, spread out etc), and your wingmen will do whatever they want, with or without regard to your formation command. You can pick up weapons dropped by downed enemies, but you have to leave your original weapon on the ground. I picked up a Magella-Attack cannon from a Zaku and made short work of the first Gouf I ran into. Haha. Melee is supposingly an important selling point, but in fact it shows up the accelerometer's fundamental limitation. You can perform a block, a slash and a hack, and combos thereof. That's it. You can't, say, block high, which might expose the enemy's belly and attack low. Melee is so simplified that it's disappointing. Double-disappointly it's much more effective than shooting. So while shooting is fun, it's probably a waste of time. The left-hand (nunchuck) accelerometer is not used, a waste. I haven't picked up a shield yet, not sure how it's used. Hopefully it's not just decorative. The voice acting is quite good. Otherwise, the production value is very low. There're no CGI or animated cutscenes (yet), the story progression between missions are presented with 3D and 2D maps for strategic and tactical info. The human story is told with unaminated drawings with voice-over. Yep, same trick you've seen since (before?) PlayStation 1. Perhaps it's all for the best. CGI animated human story cutscenes can get really lame. -- Dr. Core -------------------------------------------------- The Gundam Mailing List MK-II [email protected] Archives: http://www.gundam.com/gml Help: Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] with this in the BODY: help list
